Every named pond in the Adirondack Park — quiet waters, lean-to destinations, swimming holes. Browse by region or jump to a name.
Gal Pond is a 13-acre backcountry water in the Raquette Lake township — small enough to paddle in an afternoon, remote enough that most visitors to the region never hear the name. Access typically requires either a bushwhack or a boat-in from one of the larger Raquette Lake chain waters, depending on which drainage you approach from — this is not a roadside stop. No fish stocking records on file, which usually means native brookies if anything, or nothing at all. The kind of pond that rewards paddlers willing to carry a canoe past the obvious destinations.
Grass Pond is a 21-acre water in the Raquette Lake region — small enough to feel tucked away, large enough to paddle without running out of shoreline in ten minutes. No fish data on record, which usually means light pressure and a pond that skews more toward quiet-water paddling or wildlife watching than angling destinations. The name suggests the obvious: expect emergent vegetation along the margins, likely pickleweed or wild rice stands by midsummer, and the kind of bug hatch that brings wood ducks and herons in early morning. Access details are sparse, so contact the local DEC office or check the latest edition of the *Adirondack Paddler's Map* before committing to a trip.
Grassy Pond sits in the Raquette Lake township — 43 acres tucked into the working forestland south and west of the main lake basin, part of the patchwork of private timberland, hunting camps, and state easement parcels that defines this stretch of the central Adirondacks. Access here typically depends on landownership and seasonal roads; this isn't front-country paddling like the Blue Mountain Lake chain, and it's not the backcountry stillwater of the Five Ponds either — it's middle-distance water in a region where the line between public and private shifts with every parcel sale. No fish data on file, which usually means it's been off the DEC stocking rotation for decades, if it was ever on it.
Gull Lakes — plural, though the name reads singular on most maps — sits in the Raquette Lake Wild Forest, a pair of connected ponds tucked into working forest land southwest of the main Raquette basin. Access is unmaintained or private-land-adjacent; this is not a trailhead-and-signpost destination, and most paddlers who know it reach it by old logging roads or by poking around the upper tributaries during high water. No fish data on file with DEC, no designated campsites, no foot traffic to speak of — which makes it exactly the kind of water that gets claimed by hunters in October and left alone the rest of the year.
Gull Lakes — a pair of connected ponds tucked into the forest northwest of Raquette Lake proper — sit off the main boating and paddling circuits, more remote by feel than by actual distance. Access is by bushwhack or unmarked woods roads; this isn't a trailhead-and-sign destination, and the ponds see more use from hunters in fall than paddlers in summer. The water is tannic, shallow in places, ringed by mixed hardwoods and lowland conifers — classic Adirondack backcountry but without the draw of a named peak or a stocked fishery. If you're already camping on Raquette Lake and want a quiet explore with a topo map, Gull Lakes deliver solitude by default.
